Evansville SWAT and negotiators are on the scene of a standoff in the 1400 Block of S. Grand.
The incident began when police arrived to serve Felony Criminal Confinement and Felony Battery warrants on one of the residents. The occupant is believed to have access to several high powered weapons and armor piercing ammunition. The area is blocked by police and the public is being kept away.
More information will be released as the situation permits.

The comparisons of the Obama and Nixon White Houses are suddenly coming—pardon the expression—fast and furious, and why not? The IRS investigations; the administration’s fixation on leaks and leakers and its obsession with enemies; the cover-ups, the blame-shifting to subordinates, the defiant chief executive, even the sweating, pathetically dissembling press secretary; it all has the odor of that earlier time. Again, it’s all happening early in the second term, following a triumphant reelection. Again, the operative terms are arrogance, contempt for law, and thuggery.

The growing awareness of administration malfeasance is evident in the numbers on Google: more than 59 million hits for “Obama and Nixon” and 24 million–plus for “Obama and Watergate.” For those interested, the 44th president’s face can already be found morphing into the 37th’s. Then there’s the rising tide of commentary. “Obama knee-deep in Nixon-esque scandal” runs the headline of columnist Joe Battenfield’s piece in the Boston Herald, which notes that Obama’s campaign slogan would have been more appropriate if it were not “Forward” but “Backward”—“All the way to, say, 1972.” “Benghazi, IRS—Son of Watergate?” asks Cal Thomas. “In IRS Scandal, Echoes of Watergate,” observes the Washington Post’s George Will.

Such talk is mostly confined to the Right so far, but a handful of principled liberals have also weighed in. “There’s no way in the world I’m going to defend that,” said U.S. Representative Michael Capuano of Massachusetts of the IRS’s going after the Tea Party. “Hell, I spent my youth vilifying the Nixon administration for doing the same thing.” Former Michigan Democratic congresswoman Lynn Rivers echoed him: “For anyone over 50, this news couldn’t help but stir memories of Richard Nixon’s Political Enemies Project. . . . To use Dan Rather’s ‘duck test,’ the IRS probe of ‘hostile’ ideological groups looks like, swims like, and quacks like government dirty tricks.” One of the heroes of Watergate weighed in, too. “This is outrageous, and it is totally inexcusable,” Carl Bernstein raged about the revelation that the Department of Justice had secretly seized the phone records of Associated Press journalists. “There is no reason that a presidency that is interested in a truly free press and its functioning should permit this to happen.”

Thus it is that questions that once seemed unfathomable take on unexpected plausibility. Where and how far will it all go? Is it remotely conceivable that where Richard Nixon led, Barack Obama might follow? The answer, of course, depends primarily on the nature and severity of the crimes committed—if, indeed, they are crimes—and whether presidential culpability can be established.

But such an observation instantly gives rise to two other considerations. Lest we forget, while Democrats led the congressional inquiries into the Nixonites’ misdeeds—Sam Ervin’s committee in the Senate, Peter Rodino’s in the House—in the end, it was principled Republicans, led by Barry Goldwater (who told Nixon he could count on no more than 15 Republican votes in the Senate), who forced the president’s resignation. Can we expect such nation-above-party behavior on the part of today’s Democrats? Can you imagine Patrick Leahy ever deserting Obama? Or Al Franken? Or Barbara Boxer?

Then there’s the role of the press. Unsurprisingly, the media on the far left have circled the wagons in defense of the president. “Desperate for a Scandal, Fox’s Dobbs Attacks Obama’s ‘Inner Nixon,’” read a dismissive headline on Media Matters for America, while DailyKos has harped on previous “GOP-Fabricated Non-Scandals” that went nowhere. And it’s true that, whether it was the president’s associations with his racist pastor or the Fast and Furious boondoggle, such allegations have gone nowhere—but primarily because the press has protected Obama. So it is a given that the media will again play a key role in determining whether the current scandals are pursued to their logical conclusion or are allowed to fizzle out.

Recent history suggests which outcome is more likely.

Benghazi? With a few notable exceptions, such as CBS’s Sharyl Attkisson and CNN’s Jake Tapper, reporters shrugged off the administration’s cover-up in the immediate aftermath of the attack, when it might have harmed Obama’s presidential fortunes. They have at last been forced by whistleblowers to start asking obvious questions, but their impulse to protect Obama is presumably undiminished. The IRS scandal? Reporters have as little sympathy for the Tea Party as other liberals do, but this story can’t be ignored, at least for the moment. Even administration apologist Joe Klein opines: “I don’t think Obama ever wanted to be on the same page as Richard Nixon. In this specific case, he now is.” But the “specific case” wording is telling; Klein’s piece is generally tepid, arguing that the IRS matter is an exception to what has been a generally scandal-free administration. It is a line that many in the media are apt to adopt.

As Bernstein’s outburst makes clear, the media generally saves its greatest outrage for government attacks on . . . the media. Thus, the DOJ/AP episode may be the most dangerous to the administration of the mushrooming scandals. It’s likely that a prominent head or two will roll, perhaps even Attorney General Eric Holder’s. Reporters are nothing if not creatures of the pack, and the pack has been dissed here, big-time. How hard will they go after the president? Probably not very. Think battered-woman syndrome: he may be an abuser, but he’s still their man—the one they covered for when he was caught with Jeremiah Wright and Bill Ayers, the one they played along with on the faux war on women and the anti-Islam video as the cause for the Benghazi attack. With Nixon, by contrast, once the media picked up the faintest scent of blood, they were relentless and increasingly joyous in pursuit.

As George Will writes: “Episodes like this separate the meritorious liberals from the meretricious. The day after the IRS story broke, The Post led the paper with it, and, with an institutional memory of Watergate, published a blistering editorial demanding an Obama apology. The New York Times consigned the story to page 10.” So it’s also the case that, amid all the stunning events of the past few days, the story that will likely prove the most relevant is this one, courtesy of hotair.com: “Top CBS, ABC, CNN execs all have relatives working as advisors for White House.”

EPD Activity Report: May 14, 2013

To comply with the Clean Water Act and mandates by the Environmental

Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Justice and the State of Indiana, the City of

Evansville is finalizing its plan to make dramatic improvements to Evansville’s sewer system and reduce sewer system overflows. This week, the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility (EWSU) is sharing the updated plans for Renew Evansville, one of the largest capital improvement projects in Evansville’s history, at public meetings in each of the city’s six wards.

Renew Evansville will significantly upgrade Evansville’s sewer infrastructure and resolve many problems that result from a century‐old system. Renew Evansville has already led to dramatic operational improvements and will also address combined sewer overflows into the Ohio River and Pigeon Creek and overflows in the separate sanitary sewer system. During rain events or snow melt, rain water overwhelms the capacity of the pipes in the combined sewer system and, by design, causes the excess water and sewage to overflow into local bodies of water – the

Ohio River and Pigeon Creek in Evansville.

The last of many reports submitted to state and federal regulators – the final Integrated Overflow Control Plan (IOCP) – is due May 31, 2013. EWSU is proposing a 28‐year, $540 million plan, to be constructed through the year 2040. Upon submission, state and federal regulators will review and respond to the plan.

“The City has been working on the IOCP for nearly three years,” said Allen Mounts, director of the Evansville Water and Sewer Utility. “Thus far, the project team has submitted more than 75 reports and updates to EPA as part of developing the plan to bring our sewer system up to state and federal standards. The Utility and the City are sensitive to the significant cost of this project and the impact it will have on our customers. We are carefully assessing the demands of controlling combined sewer overflows and meeting the Clean Water Act with the community’s ability to fund the project. We have thoughtfully considered the financial health of our community in proposing the elements of the plan and the schedule for making the sewer system upgrades,” he said.

Under the federal consent decree, approved by a federal court in June 2011, EWSU’s original deadline for the final IOCP was Nov. 30, 2012. However, in 2011, while EWSU was collecting data, Evansville experienced the wettest year on record. To ensure the plan was built based on average precipitation, EWSU asked for another six months to collect additional data during more typical rain events and snow falls. Whereas the 2011 analysis projected the city would have to address more than 3 billion gallons of combined sewer overflows per year, the updated analysis from data collected in late 2012 forecasted that Evansville’s CSO activations total closer to 2 billion gallons per year.

Mounts added, “Collecting better data allowed us to right‐size our solutions and, ultimately, the additional analysis has decreased our estimated cost for the program by $66 million, easing some of the impact on ratepayers.”

The IOCP includes specific solutions to address Evansville’s combined sewer overflows, the schedule for implementing these changes and financing options. The plan includes both traditional solutions to expand current pipe and sewer capacity, as well as green solutions to remove stormwater from the combined sewer system, including a large wetland to eliminate Bee Slough as a wastewater holding structure.

Completed improvements

EWSU has already implemented more than 20 improvements to operations and maintenance. Some of the most significant improvements have been to EWSU’s two wastewater treatment plants (WWTP), which treat an average of 15 to 20 million gallons of wastewater a day during dry weather. Prior to 2010, the west WWTP processed 21 million gallons per day and the east WWTP processed 18 million gallons per day during a large rain event. Today, through capital projects, improvements to the pumping technology and enhanced operations, those same

plants treat 37 million gallons and 26 million gallons a day, respectively, during wet‐weather conditions.

Proposed improvements

EWSU has studied and developed a recommended plan that addresses the need to reduce combined sewer system and sanitary sewer system overflows in the most economical way possible. The capital improvement needs of the system include:

 Creating a wetland in an area near Bee Slough to eliminate Evansville’s largest outfalls and the health risks the slough poses;

ï‚· Adding storage facilities and constructing a new lift station at 7th Ave.;

ï‚· Separating sewers in certain areas of the system;

ï‚· Expanding the east wastewater treatment plant; and

ï‚· Implementing green and sustainable infrastructure.

Timing and financial details of the plan

In balancing meeting EPA regulations and affordability of the plan, EWSU will propose a 28‐year plan outlining the use of cost‐effective, right‐size solutions that aim to capture 92 percent of combined sewer overflows. The total cost of the plan is $540 million. During the first 20 years, the Integrated Overflow Control Plan is estimated to cost $373 million, but will not achieve the results targeted by EPA. The City is required to show the EPA what can be accomplished in the first 20 years. The City’s plan will take approximately eight more years at a projected cost of $167 million, making the total cost of implementing the plan $540 million.

Under this plan, EWSU will be forced to increase sewer rates over the life of the plan to fund the plan, as well as the ongoing operational and capital needs of the Utility. Rate increases are not expected to exceed 2 percent of Evansville’s median household income.

Community members are invited to submit comments and questions during public meetings this week (schedule can be found on www.RenewEvansville.com) or online at

www.RenewEvansville.com using the “Contact Us” link on the left side of the page. For more information or a copy of the draft plan, visit www.RenewEvansville.com.